Language Barriers in the University of Illinois Urbana ... - ideals

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Garcia, Roeder, Saleh, BTW 250-D2_06-03 4 “Slang refers to a small set of new and usually short-lived words in the vocabulary of a dialect or language.” (Walters, 2005, p. 279) Many of these words are not defined in the dictionary and their usages are limited to small regions. Thus, it is very likely that international students are not exposed to these words. As a result, the students have to struggle to comprehend the context and meaning of these words. Language style The speaking style in American English is generally quite unique. In general, most of the Americans speak relatively fast. This, coupled with unfamiliar American English accents and different language structures, has made American English even more intelligible for international students. Language Barriers and Social Interaction Overview Just under a half million international students enroll at American universities every year. (Trice, Andrea). Most of these students come to America to fulfill their academic goals without consideration of the social aspect of their educational lives. The problems that language barriers create within the social realm can lead to many destructive outcomes. For example, many researchers link feelings of anxiety, depression, and alienation to a lack of contact with members of the host nation (Trice, 2004). These conditions often lead to a difficulty in adjusting academically to the new environment, thus having a negative effect on the international student’s ability to receive an effective education. Social Capital Theory Social Capital Theory provides a reason why international students may feel overwhelmed and ultimately unsatisfied with their learning experience within a host nation. The theory states that there exists an unequal distribution as to the access of opportunities that exist within a given institution. Certain members can more easily tap into these resources than others. For example,
Garcia, Roeder, Saleh, BTW 250-D2_06-03 5 students that have grown up learning the values and norms necessary to unlock certain doors will be better equipped to find job opportunities as well as other beneficial openings. International students that neglect to make friendships with students from the host nation will most likely miss out on many of the options that their university provides. Studies show that international students that do socialize with members of their host nation have the greatest amount of fulfillment from their study abroad (Trice, 2004). Survey 1 Analysis Purpose This survey aims at getting real insights and understandings of the problem of language barriers faced by the international community on campus. Through this survey, we hope to elicit the possible causes of the problem and at the same time, get some clues of the flaws within the current situation. With this, we hope to reach a conclusion which could be based on finding the possible changes to tackle the current problem. Sample Since the dominant group of the international community is international students, we have made this group of students our primary subject for investigation. Due to the time constraint, we did not manage to conduct the survey to a large scale. Our survey sample consists of 41 international students. Though, this number is relatively small compared to the total number of international students in the campus, we try to make the sample as diverse as possible. The students came from various nations and have different first languages. The largest group was from Malaysia and Singapore, followed by Korean, Japan, India and China. The remaining includes Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Peru and France. Likewise, their first languages are also different; with majority of them speaking Mandarin, followed by Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Hindi, Cantonese, Malays, Spanish, French and Vietnamese. Questionnaire
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Language Barriers in the University of Illinois Urbana ... - ideals

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